State Senator Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville) wrote and delivered a letter to Governor Andy Beshear, asking him to intervene in the city of Louisville’s response to protests in the city. The letter was co-signed by the Republican leadership in the Senate: Robert Stivers, David Givens, Damon Thayer, and Mike Wilson.
In conjunction with the delivery of the letter, the Republican leadership held a press conference to discuss the issues raised in the letter.
Here is the text of the letter:
Dear Governor Beshear:
On August 10, I lost a friend to violence and murder in my hometown. Mr. David Boggs went to church with my family, and his daughter is a childhood friend to my son.
The Boggs family released a statement that prompted my letter to you today:
“Although the impact of violence in our community hits hardest on those families who suffer the loss of a loved one, violence is a community pain shared by all of us for each victim across our entire city. Its affliction can only be resolved by a united community effort.”
Governor, I believe that to effectively participate in a “united community effort” to curb the violence and unrest in Louisville, the effort must include state leadership and resources.
Carjacking has increased by over 400%. There are over 360 victims of non-fatal gunshot wounds in our hospitals. Louisville’s violent crime activity is skyrocketing, leaving Kentucky’s largest city on course to break its one-year record of 117 homicides, with 104 homicides already reported in this calendar year.
The City of Louisville is experiencing racial tensions not seen here in decades. At the same time, policing is in disarray, and the law enforcement policies of our city are in turmoil. The Louisville Chief of Police was fired, and nearly 200 officers have resigned or retired. This mass exodus of officers and staff from the Metro Police Department, coupled with policy frictions, will compromise basic safety if more demonstrating and violence occur, as has been threatened.
There has been chaos in our neighborhoods, on our streets, and in our central business district. Downtown Louisville is boarded up. Businesses, hotels, and restaurants are shut down. The plywood covering our buildings downtown is not to keep Covid-19 out, but because the Mayor has been unable or unwilling to protect private property. Louisville was once a high-energy city. Now, it’s a boarded-up mess, and people who live here are so afraid to go downtown that economic recovery cannot even begin.
Governor, we need your help! Since March, the state has functioned under your emergency executive orders. We need your focus, plans, and leadership in the state’s largest city to begin healing from the violence, and generating an economic recovery.
I stand ready and willing to help in and with your plans for Louisville’s rescue. I know my colleagues in the State Senate also stand prepared to restore order and security to our neighbors, our property, and our businesses. Governor, the time for partnership is now. It is time to show the state our “united community effort.”
I look forward to hearing from you on this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Julie Raque Adams
State Senator
Mayor Greg Fischer responds to the press conference
The mayor of Louisville, Greg Fischer, released the following statement in response to the letter and the press conference:
Statement from Mayor Fischer re: State Senate press conference
It would be easy to describe today’s press conference as partisan politics, but the truth is, I think it’s reassuring to hear our state legislators offering support to Louisville. Cities across the nation are facing many challenges right now — COVID-19, an uptick in gun violence, an economic downturn, and renewed demands for racial justice — and we need support, and resources. We appreciate what Governor Beshear and his team have already provided, and we join Senate Leadership in their call for a special session to address the pressing issues we face. Our city has already taken many actions to start addressing these problems and we’ve been talking with legislators, Metro Council, and community about potential needs from the state, such as:
- Allow local jurisdictions to create Civilian Review Panels with subpoena power.
- Create a statewide officer-involved shooting investigative team to review all such incidents.
- Amend KRS 67C to increase accountability and transparency in law enforcement, including allowing police departments and public officials to discuss pending internal disciplinary cases.
- Ban the use of no-knock warrants statewide and require the use of body-worn cameras with executing all search warrants, just as Louisville Metro has done in adopting Breonna’s Law.
- Require all police department to use body cameras, encourage transparency in release of video, and provide state funding for purchase of equipment and data storage.
- Support new laws, policies, and state funding streams to promote mental wellness among officers, including making it a crime to attempt to “blind” an officer with a “laser light device” and criminalizing the practice of “doxing” (maliciously publishing the personally identifying information of) a public official.
- Fund a new cadre of “first responders” from the social work and mental health fields to work in concert with officers to handle many of the emergency responses where a sworn office is not the best “first” solution to aid a person(s) in need.
- Fund violence prevention and intervention efforts to interrupt the cycle of violence and engage youth in productive activities.
- Ban the use of chokeholds, neck restraints, strangleholds, and weight on subject’s necks unless necessary to the life of an officer or another person. (This is current LMPD policy.)
- Require all police departments to train on de-escalation techniques, as LMPD does.
- Require officers to act to prevent or stop any member, regardless of rank or assignment, from using unlawful or excessive force; intervention may be verbal and/or physical. (Current LMPD policy.)
- Ban shooting at moving vehicles except in situations where officers are returning gunfire to save a human live or prevent a vehicle ramming attack. (This is current LMPD policy.)
- Require comprehensive reporting and public release of documentation when officers use force.
So yes – I’m glad to see this sense of urgency from our state legislators. We share it.
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